Industrial rents continue decline in third quarter: JTC

INDUSTRIAL property rentals continued their decline, falling 2 per cent in the third quarter from the second quarter, culminating in a 7.3 per cent year-on-year decline. This was driven by rentals of warehouses which fell 4.4 per cent quarter on quarter.

On the transactions side, industrial property prices also fell 1.7 per cent in the third quarter from the second quarter. Year on year, they have fallen 7.8 per cent.

Overall industrial occupancies also dipped 0.3 percentage point to 89.1 per cent, according to JTC statistics released on Thursday.

The state industrial landlord said that from now till end of 2017, about three million sq m of industrial space - which includes around 720,000 sq m of multiple-user factory space - is estimated to come onstream.

This is higher than the average annual supply and demand of around 1.9 million sq m and 1.2 million sq m respectively in the past two years.

JTC added: "This is likely to exert further downward pressure on occupancy rates, prices and rentals, translating to reduced business cost for industrialists."